Group will not support proposed tax credit for apartment developer

ALIEF

BETTY L. MARTIN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 6:30 am, Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Alief Super Neighborhood Council’s refusal to support One Park Lane Partnership’s plan to build an $18 million, 144-unit apartment complex at 7515 Cook Road won’t stop the developer from applying to the state for a tax credit.

Brian Cogburn, a general partner in One Park Lane, 1770 St. James Place, Suite 340, said Feb. 27 the partnership is proceeding with its application for housing tax credits to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to build affordable, quality, multi-family housing needed in the Alief area.

If the tax credits are awarded, the majority of Park Lane Apartments’ 10 one-bedroom, 78 two-bedroom and 56 three-bedroom units would be ready for occupancy by March 2011.

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The one-bedroom apartments would rent for $498-$601 per month, and three-bedroom apartments would rent for $671-$831 per month.

Michael Manning, president of the Alief Super Neighborhood Council, withdrew his recommendation that the council draw up a resolution in support of One Park Lane’s application after the majority of council members voiced objections at the council’s monthly meeting Feb. 24.

“Alief is the most densely populated area . . . Within 2 miles, there are 1,200 apartments with 80-percent occupancy,” Stoerner said, adding that Alief is already overrun with low-income apartment complexes whose developers promised they would be regularly inspected, secure apartments filled with amenities.

“We’ve seen the deterioration and the spiral into ghettos,” Stoerner said. “It’s not good for Alief, not good for the school district.”

Students from the complex would be within the attendance area of Youens Elementary, 12141 High Star Drive, which is already filled to capacity.

Karen Loper, staff member for State Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Alief, said if the apartments were targeted for seniors, the application would more closely meet a real need in the community and be more likely welcomed by the community.

Anne Williams, a longtime area resident, said Alief’s population strains police, fire, hospitals, schools and total infrastructure, and has led to high-crime areas instead of attracting businesses that would contribute to the community.

“When developers apply for tax credits to build subsidized housing, they make their money, a great cash cow, and then leave the community with too many people crammed into a complex,” Williams said.

“A drive around Alief shows many signs advertising either ‘free move-in’ or ‘free rent’ or other such incentives, indicating there are many available units and not a need or shortage.”

She suggested the community would be better served if apartment owners rehabilitated their existing apartments.

In developer’s defense

Bert Magill, Cogburn’s partner, said the cement brick and Hardiplank apartments would include full perimeter gates that would limit access to the property. They also would include a children’s playscape.

Individual apartments, he said, would offer 9-foot ceilings, and various packages would include such amenities as ceiling fans, cable TV, patios and full-sized washers and dryers.

He said his company has a good track record of maintaining properties it has built, including the Kensington Place Apartments near Ellington Field and a complex in Willis.

“We haven’t sold anything we’ve built since 1995,” Magill said. “We have good management.”

The company actively tries to get police officers to live on-site and conducts background checks of tenants, he said.

In a Feb. 23 e-mail to Anne Williams and her husband Henry Williams, Manning outlined his reasons for supporting the project. Manning cited the rehabilitation of a former problem complex, Camino Real Apartments, diagonally across from the proposed Park Lane Apartments, into the Jadestone complex. That developer obtained a federal tax-credit for the renovation.

“National politics has developed this method of tax-credit subsidy as a compromise to provide decent and lower-crime housing for families with below-average incomes — 50 percent to 60 percent of median family income in the Houston area ­ — for future residents of Park Lane,” Manning wrote in the e-mail.

Manning said current policy and laws may favor new construction over rehabilitation.

He suggested the council ask that federal and state laws, and city housing policies, be reviewed with an eye to making them more favorable to upgrading apartments.